


Sarah, Queen of the Night

by BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder



Series: ZMcZ Prompt Ultramarathon [2]
Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: Multi, Non-Aberration Vampires, OT3, Polyamory, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8161856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder/pseuds/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder
Summary: Sarah's new spell is... interesting...





	1. Chapter 1

_So magic does have a sense of humor,_ thought Sarah as she finished reading the newest entry to her illicit spellbook.  To her abuse of the clot, to the immense power she'd begun with, the response had been to give her a similarly massive spell.  To her constant leeching off that power, magic had given her something new to leech from.  To her secrecy, magic had given her a spell steeped in darkness. To the gaslighting she'd done with her time-viewing, magic had given her a new way to gaslight.  And to her dreams, magic had brought them to life.

It was funny.  It had been such a disappointment when Mr. Verres had finally drilled into her that one is born with the designation "wizard," but here she was, the sort of person wizards feared.  Her ambitions had been beyond fulfilled in substance if not in title.  Whatever she was, at this point - really some time before - she needed a catchier name for it than "awakened"; she thought of when she had tried to bluff Grace's brother by telling him Nanase had turned Elliot into a cat.  "Crazy macho red-headed witch woman!"  Well, no one would call Sarah macho, and she certainly wasn't a redhead, but if "witch" had no technical meaning, which it didn't as far as she could tell, she may as well be it.

At heart, the spell gave her a way to connect herself to anyone, so she could speak to them, see through their eyes, hear through their ears, sense their emotions and surface thoughts, speak to them, forever, or until she herself willed otherwise.  Moreover, she could rob them of their strength and temporarily add it to her own - limited - she'd never be able to armwrestle her superheroine ex - but from what she could glean from the book's circuitous description, far more than any human could hope to attain.  An overpowered spell for an overpowered witch.

That would be enough, but even beyond this, she had been given the ability to build this power into an empire.  Anyone she established such a connection with, unless she stopped them, could establish their own such connections, and likewise steal strength, and so could anyone they connected to, and so on down the line.  There was an asymmetry in that you could only revoke your "children's" power, and your sense of your "elders" was much more limited.  And all of this went back to her, Sarah Brown.  Pandora had given her such strength, and then caused her to channel such power, that she had now become in essence a one-woman clot.

There was a hangup: for the same reason Nanase got to eat like Michael Phelps, the greater her empire, the weaker she would become.  She would have to take power from her "children" to sustain herself, the excess replacing sustenance and sleep if need be.  Circuitous as the book's descriptions were, it was clear to Sarah that if she were to build this empire, stealing her underling's strength would be not just a perk, but a necessity to simply live; the power, however, was indeed theft, and would leave any underling she used it on conterminously weakened, and, if she weren't careful, forever dead.

Two things seemed especially noteworthy about this spell.  First, just as Nanase's guardian spell seemed to bear the signature of a holy shepherd, so did hers seem to bear the mark of some deity of darkness.  The connections would be weakened in bright light on either end, with some influence from each node between, and especially in sunlight.  For immediate connections, a brightly-lit room at both ends, or a clear day outdoors on either end, and it would be as if there were no connection.  Any strength stolen would fail similarly, but only if she herself (or the thief herself) were in the light.

Even more noteworthy, however, was her method of stealing strength, and of making the connections.  She could, at will, as could any of her successors she so willed, lengthen and harden her canines enough to pierce human skin.  Any blood so shed would turn to a sort of ichor that could not carry disease, and would replace itself preternaturally quickly.  The first sip would make the connection, and after that she would strengthen herself while weakening her victim, whether there was a preexisting connection or not.  Unless she stole too much strength, the wound, too, would heal with preternatural speed.

In a word, she was a vampire.


	2. Chapter 2

_Of course_ , Sarah reminded herself, _I'm not a REAL vampire._ Like "wizard," that term had a specific meaning she didn't fit.  What she was was better: although her powers had the whiff - okay, overwhelming stench - of evil to them, she was still human, still a true moral agent, unlike the aberrations those in the know called "vampires."  Indeed, she was closer to the Byronesque creatures of lore that the word would conjure in most people's minds than those beasts were, and to that end, it was time to become the demon in her dreams.  It was time for a shopping trip.

She had always known that corsets were a pain in the boob, but only now realized what a pain in the ass they could be, at least to get properly.  She couldn't find any off the rack that matched her old visions, that was to be sure, but more importantly she couldn't find any that really seemed to fit at all.  Some poking around on the internet - after leading her down some regrettable avenues (a few of which she bookmarked) - led her to a boutique owned by an aging goth woman who promised fittings and alterations on site.

Before leaving, she had sketched out the image of herself as a vampire, and tried in GIMP to match as best she could the images that had come to her in the ever-shifting, non-Euclidean sight of the third eye of daydreams.  Blood red, with turquoise down the sides - doable, she was told.  The old woman stripped her topless and wrapped her in enough measuring tape, sneaking off at intervals to attend to the door chime.  Within twenty minutes or so she was fully dressed again with nothing better to do than watch a blur of black and grey dart around the store, dipping into the back from time to time.

After over two hours of phone games and amazement at this woman's defiance of Father Time, Sarah was left facing her again.

"All done!" she chirped in a voice unbecoming her black lipstick and mascara, holding the finished corset in her arms.  "Follow me into the fitting room so I can lace you up."

"Um, thanks, but I'd kind of rather learn to do it myself..." said Sarah.

"Can't be done, kid," the old woman replied shaking her head, "not this kind, not properly.  Better to teach your boyfriend, girlfriend."  Sarah gave a quiet wince.  "Well, whoever you'd feel comfortable rigging up your tits."

"...you?"

The old goth laughed.  "Sure, whenever you've got another three bennies."

One chance, then.  She really only had had one chance anyway to make her little debut, but the fact that she might never get it looking this good drove home the urgency.  From the same boutique she bought blood red heels, turquoise stockings, and a blood red miniskirt similar to those those in her imagination, but the red cape and turquoise cuffs she'd pictured had to fall by the wayside; there were turquoise evening gloves, but she felt they wouldn't have the same effect, and she was spending plenty anyway.

It did run a pretty penny, especially with the expedited fitting taken into account, but after all, a girl only became a vampire once.  She'd probably be running a balance for a while, but it'd be all right.  Worst come to worst, these new powers would make it easy for her steal the money.   _Stop that, evil me!_  She totally could, though.

As she finished signing the receipt, a wicked whim came over her, and she bared her fangs.  "Thank you very much," she said with a huge smile, making sure to keep her mouth open as wide as she could manage.

She was a bit deflated by the woman's laughter at that.  "Cute!" she said.

"You really think so?" asked Sarah, blushing, lisping a tiny bit through the fangs.  "Hey, do you mind if I throw these on in back, so I can get some feedback on the whole look?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thank you!  Thank you so much!"

"No, I should be thanking you - not every day I get a real live wizard!"

Allowing the old woman's misconception to stand, Sarah ducked quickly into the back and returned dressed to oppress, her old clothes in her shopping bag.

"Damn!  Knock 'em dead, kid.  Just make sure they get back up again."

"Oh, I will," said Sarah with a chuckle, and she left into the setting sun.


	3. Chapter 3

"That's a lot of boob," said Tedd as Sarah entered.  Grace nodded in assent.

"Indeed," said Sarah, peering down at her chest, noting that despite awing Tedd, it had been so much bigger in her mind's eye.  "Glorious boob."

She had entered Tedd's lab with a sultry sashay, making the most of her one chance to show off her new suspiciously tan vampiric self.  (She'd tried to lighten her makeup a shade or three, but it had simply refused to blend.)  She was sure even Mr. Verres's gaze had lingered on her for a split second longer than it should have for a man of his age and position relative to her.

"Okay..." said Tedd... "much as asking this goes against every fiber of my being, is there a reason you're dressed like this?"

"I have a new spell."

"Boob missiles?" asked Tedd.  Grace and Sarah narrowed their eyelids at him in unison.  "What?  Why else would 'new spell' mean 'corset'?"

Sarah answered his question by revealing her fangs with a hiss.  Tedd and Grace both jumped.

"The hell?!" shouted Tedd.

"You're... you're not... you can't have..." said Grace.

Sarah cackled.  "I'm not what?" Sarah asked, still - at least to her own ears - clearly unused to talking through the fangs.

"...an aberration... you can't be," said Grace.

"What's another word for aberration?" Sarah asked.

Tedd and Grace looked at each other.  They were manifestly calming down, seemingly beginning to realize that this had to be some sort of game on Sarah's part, rather than true corruption.

"Vampire," said Tedd.

"Muahaha!  You're right.  I'm not.  If, however, vampires did not exist, I would have just invented them."

Tedd squinted at her for a moment, and his eyes sprang open.  "Whoa," he said, "you're not kidding."

"What?" asked Grace, "what do you see?"

"Her spell - she's not corrupted, but if those fangs cut you, she can enthrall you, steal energy, read your emotions, and let you do all that to someone else."

Grace peered at Sarah in rote mimicry, seemingly looking for something that of course she had no way of seeing.  "Whoa."  The three of them stone stone-still for a moment, until Grace broke the silence, shouting: "cool!"  She ran over, pulling off her shirt.  "Come on, let me see!" she said, pushing her bra strap aside.  Sarah put a hand on her shoulder, and another on the side of her neck.

"It'll work better if you turn down the lights," she said, "Tedd?"

"Huh?  Oh, sure."  Tedd turned the lights off, leaving only the lights of the computer monitors.

Sarah bit into the bare flesh of Grace's neck, and Grace moaned.  Sarah felt in herself the desire to drink - drink deep - drink it all - kill her - but of course not.  She stopped herself after a few sips.

"Mmmh!" moaned Grace.  "That was awesome..."

Suddenly, Grace's thoughts echoed through Sarah's head - it wasn't like in a comic book, where thoughts came in natural language.  Rather, it was something like an image, but not even as concrete as an image.  What she "heard" was what Grace felt, and what Grace felt was Sarah's warmth against her own bare skin.  It felt... comfortable, familiar.

"Teddy, come here," said Sarah, pulling her new Mina into a tight embrace.  "Take off your shirt."

Tedd approached and began to unbutton his shirt.  When he was about halfway down, Sarah let go of Grace, who steadied herself against a nearby desk, and grabbed him by the arms, pulling them behind his back.  He chuckled.  Sarah pulled his shirt down over his right arm, and presented his bare shoulder to Grace like a bottle of a fine vintage.  Grace, after fixing her bra, opened her mouth wide to make sure Sarah and Tedd could see as she extended her own fangs for the first time.  With a hiss mimicking Sarah's from before, she plunged her fangs into Tedd's shoulder.

Tedd moaned just as Grace had before.  Just as Sarah had, Grace took her first few sips, and just as in her own mind, Sarah could sense in Grace's a desire to drink deep.  For that reason, after a few seconds of Grace lapping up Tedd's blood became a few too many, Sarah pushed gently on Grace's forehead, and she let go.

"Hmm?" said Tedd, touching the still-wet blood surrounding the vanished wounds, "what did you do that for?"

Sarah smiled and looked at Grace, who giggled.  "I don't think I would have, no matter what Sarah'd done," said Grace, "but I, uh, kind of wanted to kill you."

"Oh," said Tedd, "that's something."  Tedd and Grace looked at one another for a moment, Grace giving an awkward smile.  Tedd smiled back, and went to a mirror he kept in his lab.  He extended his fangs, fixed his shirt without buttoning it, and took a series of poses, becoming a she without even realizing.  Sarah and Grace took a seat and watched her do her thing in the monitors' light.

After a few minutes of this, Grace walked over and put an arm around Tedd.  "I thought vampires couldn't be seen in mirrors," said Grace.

"We're not vampires, remember?" said Tedd.  "Vampires are evil."

"Aww," said Grace, "you mean we're not evil?"

Tedd turned to Grace with a smile.  "We could be."  The two girls kissed.

Sarah sat back and watched her underlings kiss and fondle one another, half expecting them to rut on the floor in front of her.  She felt acutely their love and lust for one another, but also, as they went at it, she began to feel something strange in them.  For a split second, she thought it was resentment of her for keeping them from going to town, but that wasn't it.

No, they would love to have sex then and there, with or without her watching - what they resented was the fact that  _she_ would mind - no, more than that.  Even if she didn't mind, she would never touch them - no, it was less than that.  If she never wanted to touch them, or watch them, they could both accept that without a moment's grief, but Grace was sure she did, but never would, for ridiculous reasons; Tedd for her part doubted this, but while not resenting her likely reluctance, resented that the question would never be asked.

The same fear that might dwell within the heart of a shotgun-toting husband, in its own form, Sarah found in both of theirs.  They were jealous, but what they were jealous of wasn't an interloper, but the concept of an interloper.  They were jealous of jealousy itself - no, not even.  They were jealous of the expectation of jealousy.  Both of them knew, and knew that the other knew, that their love could not only withstand, but be strengthened by the right person, and that that right person was Sarah.

All of a sudden, Sarah realized that Grace had broken Tedd's kiss, redirecting her to her neck and chest, and was looking at her with a smile.  Her heart skipped a beat as she realized she could sense that Grace could sense in Tedd what she had sensed in both of them, and what this meant with the certainty of a mutual attraction she had sensed in Grace before.  Above the jumble of images that could scarce even be called images, a single, clear word from Grace's head resonated in Sarah's.

_Well?_

Sarah began to walk over.  She loved them, both of them, of that there was no question.  What she wasn't sure of was whether the nature of the love she had for them was similar to that which she'd sensed them to desire.  Not whether it was sexual - she was sexually attracted to Grace, at least, that she was sure of.  There had been a time she'd been in denial about being attracted to women at all, but that had ended.

 _Wait, it ended?_  Well, looking at Grace, it certainly wasn't ongoing, but there had been such a time, so it must have ended.  She remembered arguing with this side of herself in just the way truly straight people don't... and she would picture her as a vampiric seductress.  The seductress she'd endeavored to become.  In the few seconds it took her to strut to her beloved and beloved's lover, she had to laugh - without realizing it, she'd truly accepted this side of herself the minute she'd found this spell.   _Thanks, mother-of-all-evil._

Sarah dropped to her knees, straddling her underlings all-but-rutting on the carpet, not quite sitting on Tedd's midsection.  Tedd turned to look up at her, and she smiled down, as Tedd smiled back at her.  She tried to kneel down further, but Tedd's body was getting in the way, a problem she soon realized she had the solution to.   _Lie down,_ she projected into Tedd's head, and she did, soon lying prone against Grace.  Grace raised an eyebrow as Sarah herself lay down against the floor, meeting Grace's gaze.   _Kiss me_ , she projected into Grace's head, and she did.

Now she knew who could help with her corsets.


	4. Chapter 4

"So you're dating now?"

"Mm-hmm," said Sarah, playing with Tedd's hair as he rested his head on her shoulder, dried blood staining his collar.

"And Grace is okay with that?" Elliot continued.

"It was pretty much her idea."

He thought for a moment.  "Yeah, I can see that."

"Is this really what we're talking about?" said Ashley.

"It does seem rather momentous," said Susan.

"Maybe, a little, but... the vampire thing?"

"Don't call it that," said Susan.

"Hmm?  Why not?"

An eerie silence came over the table.  "You shouldn't call it that," said Sarah.  "There's a reason I don't."

"Okay, okay!  Back to polygamy."

"You probably shouldn't use that word for this development, either," said Susan.  "It implies a power imbalance that hopefully isn't present here."

"Fine, polyamory."

"And to be fair, there is a power imbalance," said Sarah.  "Isn't there, dear?" Tedd purred, and Sarah kissed his forehead.

"True," said Susan, "but an idiosyncratic one, not a systemic one."

Sarah shrugged her underling-free shoulder. "And with that, what else is there to say?"

"Well, it's about time!" said Ellen, several miles southward.

"What?" asked Justin and Nanase nearly in unison.

"What do you mean, 'what?'  Even when she was with Elliot, it was kind of obvious there was something there."

"But... I mean..." said Nanase, "...what would make something like this even enter your head?!"

"I don't know," said Ellen, "it's strange what thoughts one can find in one's head."  She gave Nanase a peck on the cheek; Nanase grimaced.

"It is unusual," said Justin.

"We're an unusual bunch," said Ellen.

"Ellen, please, don't," said Nanase, putting her hands on one shoulder.

Ellen looked at her and saw the pain in her grimace.  "Okay."

Grace spoke up.  "I know it's strange, but it feels right.  And... and Ellen's right, it's felt right for a long time."

"And that should be enough," said Justin, with a sidelong glance at Nanase.  Ellen, too, was looking at her, pity in her eyes.

"You're right," said Nanase, "it should be."

"But you don't want it to be," said Grace.

"That's ridiculous," said Nanase.

"It is," said Justin, "but it's true: you don't want this new thing elevated to the level of that which took you so long to accept."

"When you put it that way, it sounds awful."

"It is, but looking back on what happened after Melissa outed me, and all you've been through with your mother, it's understandable.  This sort of thing seems so small in our lives now, on one hand with all we've been through, but also just being older, and on some level you resent that."

"Hmm."

Ellen and Grace exchanged a glance.  "In any case," said Ellen, "I'm happy for you."

"Me, too," whispered Nanase.

"And me," said Justin, pulling her to himself.

"Thanks," said Grace, head against Justin's chest.

"Grace, don't thank us for the bare minimum," said Ellen.

Justin sighed.  "Ellen, you can't take the bare minimum for granted; that's a lesson I learned a long time ago."

Ellen winced.  "Yeah."

"Thanks," said Grace, "still."

"So, um," said Justin, "are we going to talk about the whole vampire thing?"

"Don't call it that," said Nanase.

"I'm not sure what there is to say," said Grace.  "It's a pretty powerful spell, but I don't know whom she'd use it on other than me and Teddy, especially since it costs her own energy to maintain.  It might come in handy someday, and the fangs are cute, but for the most part it's just something between the three of us."

"Still," said Ellen, "a psychic link with your lovers isn't nothing."

"Yeah," said Grace, as she realized suddenly she could 'hear' Sarah faintly, as she hadn't before.  "Hmm?  Oh."  She smiled and giggled.

"What?" said Justin.

"I think Sarah and Tedd sneaked off somewhere dark," said Ellen.

"No," said Grace, "something else."  She made a point of making direct eye contact with Ellen; "I'll tell you later," she said to her.

Evening came, and Ashley and Elliot managed to find some time alone, as he lay on his couch, watching a movie with her curled up in his arms.

"So what do you think?" she asked.

"Hmm?  About what?"

"About Sarah's new 'thing.'"

"Oh."  He shrugged.  "It threw me a little at first, but now that my brain's getting used to it, I think it's sweet."

She turned her head to face him.  "What?"

"Yeah, I mean, there are people who'd say it's not sustainable, and maybe they're right, but what the hell do I know?"

"That's not what I... oh, never mind."  She turned back to the TV.

"Does it bother you?"

"Of course not!" said Ashley.  "In my goth phase I ran into a lot of people in 'things' like that."

"Oh."  Elliot thought for a moment.  "You're not... you're not trying to tell me something, are you?"

Ashley giggled, turning back to him.  "Come here."  He leaned down, and she kissed him.  "Relax, you dork.  You're the only boy or girl... the only boy _and_ girl for me."

"Th-thanks," said Elliot, scratching his head.  "I don't want to feel like I'm imprisoning you, but at the same time, well, I just..."

"I know," said Ashley.  "Don't worry."  She turned her whole body over in his arms, and whispered in his ear, "maybe take this upstairs?" lifting one of her legs over his.

He did a quick survey of the house to see how quietly they could make it to his room.  Ellen was off "solving mysteries" as usual, and it didn't look like he'd cross his parents' lines of sight.  They wouldn't stop them, and he and Ashley never risked pregnancy, but he still didn't like to make them uneasy.  "Sure, but let's be quiet."

When they got to his room, he reached for the light switch, and she pushed his hand away.  "Let's leave it off."

"Um... okay..." he said, as she had already begun to unbutton his shirt.  He sat down on his bed, and she straddled him, pushing him back.  He lifted his legs up onto the bed as she got on all fours on top of him.  She then began to kiss his chest, then moved up to his neck, and he felt her fangs penetrate his flesh.


End file.
